Photo: Quintin Soloviev · CC BY 4.0Fewer people are out of work in Moab (2.9%) than in 71% of U.S. towns
Home is the office for 8% of workers; Utah has 18%. Moab grades C for jobs and income and A for walkability. More than half stay in Moab for work; outside it, Salt Lake City is the main destination (2%, 198 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What stands out about work in Moab
Commutes from Moab are quick
The average trip to work takes 12 minutes, against 22 across Utah. That’s about 77 hours a year less on the road than the typical Utah worker. Time on the road ↓
Moab gains people on a workday
About 6,400 people are in Moab on a workday afternoon, 23% more than the 5,200 who live here: 2,400 come in to work and 1,200 head out. Day and night ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
Moab’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Moab is better than 29% of U.S. towns, #106 of 119 in Utah. Unemployment holds Moab’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 17% of U.S. towns).
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Moab could be anywhere from D to B.
A commute of about 12 minutes in Moab
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 3.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Moab workers work from home, vs 18% across Utah. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,623 commuters (the 8% who work from home are left out). Across Utah: 82% drive alone, 2% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Who commutes out of Moab, and who commutes in
On a workday 1,226 residents head out to work, 1,814 work right here, and 2,440 people come in from elsewhere.
About 6,400 people are in Moab on a workday afternoon, 23% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.40 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Where Moab goes to work
Where Moab clocks in
2% of workers
2% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
The 4,254 jobs based in Moab
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Moab, 2013 → 2023: 3,337 → 4,254. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.
Primary jobs covered by unemployment insurance (not the self-employed). Pay is monthly earnings. LEHD 2023.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Moab’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Short hops and long hauls from Moab
About 22% show a job over 50 miles away. Some of that is real, and some is employers that report every worker at a head office, so a few long commutes are on paper only.
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Moab is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Moab is more walkable than 92% of U.S. towns, #8 of 119 in Utah. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 14.2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 5.0% across Utah, on an EPA index of 9.0.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 2,865 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service: no data. EPA’s transit file has no stops for most of this county (its agencies had not published schedules in the format EPA used in 2020). That is missing data, not a finding that there is no bus or train.
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 8.7% of Moab households have no vehicle (Utah 4.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Moab’s commuters take a bus or train.
2,759th of 3,696: where Moab ranks among U.S. towns of 3,600 to 7,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 81 | Fruit Heights UT | 5,952 | $141K | 3.9% | 0.2% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 107 | West Bountiful UT | 5,931 | $135K | 3.7% | 1.9% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 216 | Snyderville UT | 5,948 | $144K | 4.6% | 1.3% | 12% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,757 | Kermit TX | 6,019 | $81K | 16.9% | 3.9% | 23% | C |
| 2,758 | Olio Township IL | 4,627 | $56K | 11.6% | 6.7% | 16% | C |
| 2,759 | Moab UT | 5,206 | $62K | 15.9% | 2.9% | 60% | C |
| 2,760 | Hannibal NY | 4,510 | $74K | 16.0% | 5.2% | 9% | C |
| 2,761 | Crystal Lake FL | 5,451 | $49K | 26.3% | 4.1% | 2% | C |
| … | |||||||
| 3,696 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | D− |
Census ACS 2020–24 (income, poverty, unemployment), Census LEHD (work in town), TownRatings Jobs & income grades. Each town links to its Work & commute page.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Moab, the top three, the last and three more from Utah.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs, where the employer reports them. Income, poverty, unemployment, commute time and how people travel: Census ACS 2020–24 averages.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Moab: questions
What is the median household income in Moab?
$61,667 (±$12,096) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $95,166 across Utah and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Moab?
15.9%, against 8.5% across Utah and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Moab?
12 minutes each way on average, against 22 across Utah and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Moab work?
60% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Salt Lake City (2%, 198 mi), Monticello (2%, 50 mi), Price (1%, 98 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Moab walkable?
Moab is more walkable than 92% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 9.0 out of 20, and 14% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Moab without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 9% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Moab, from the people who make the trip.
More of Moab
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2023, primary jobs. Commute time, working from home and working out of state: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Distances are straight lines between home and work; real drives run longer. Walkability index, job access and transit service: U.S. EPA Smart Location Database. The two grades are our own summaries of these figures, not official ratings.